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The secret to low ash is to go sloooowly lol and no sneezing! 
Slide the ashes off the shovel directly on the bottom.. It works..
Ray
Slide the ashes off the shovel directly on the bottom.. It works..Ray
Chip welcome to the forum! Backwoods Savage is a very knowledgeable down to earth wood burner. I have met him and his wife at the Woodstock soapstone factory and they are very nice people. I believe Pete has met him as well and can vouch for him along with Zap, Pen, Gamma Ray and others and they will tell you the same thing. Sometimes text comes across the wrong way..
Ray
Ray
Since I'm stuck with no ash pan I might as well make the best of it so I'm looking for better tools. I have some stainless sheet steel so I'm going to fashion a pan that is pretty low, maybe 4" deep, and long to give me plenty of room to slide the ashes off the shovel. But the shovel is my main problem now. It's a standard black little coal shovel but the surface has started to rust through and I can no longer slide the ashes off smoothly....they stick and it's hard to dump 'em. I may take some of that stainless sheet and make a shovel from it as well...
I saw some talk on here a while back about them maybe coming out with an ash pan for the Fireview. Would probably require a new bottom for the stove so I don't think it would be cheap. The Fireview, with a good ash pan and a big window, would be the perfect stove for me...
As someone that has gotten many nasty private messages in regards to this, I can confirm this.
Huntindog1
Minister of Fire
Browning Bar after being on this board for a while people get used to you, I think its a generation gap thing. 
I hate the ash pans on both. Glad there are more out there. Sometimes I used them (mainly when cold), usually just scoop out. Just always weary about embers.
Embers have proven deadly in fact a few notable disasters last winter come to mind so I did something about it. I asked my daughter for a shiny metal trash can with cover for Christmas which I placed on 3 bricks located about 20' from my house. I place my ashes in this barrel and sleep better at night. If I get ice I spread ashes on them for traction.
Ray
moburns
New Member
I don't use the ash pan on my stove and i have a pellet stove lol. I use a shop vac. I worked at a store that had lots of woodstoves and I didn't understand the desire for the ash pan.
When I dump my ash bucket I will water it until it is good and soaked. I probably look like a crazed fool watering dirt in my bathrobe when it's 20 degrees out. But, I don't have to worry about burning something down.
ditchrider
Burning Hunk
I didn't like it on the Heritage, nor the Mansfield I currently burn. A waste of engineering and waste of materials. When it gets right down to it that cost is passed onto the customer for a feature that really isn't a feature.
The Heritage had a lever in the ash pan compartment and a tool that you could open the grate with. That was okay, but we didn't use it much. The pan was small. The Mansfield grate I have to stick a poker into the firebox and open the grate, rather blindly.
As i indicated earlier, I think Hearthstone could lower their pricing just by leaving it out. It's a great thought. It just doesn't pan out.
The Heritage had a lever in the ash pan compartment and a tool that you could open the grate with. That was okay, but we didn't use it much. The pan was small. The Mansfield grate I have to stick a poker into the firebox and open the grate, rather blindly.
As i indicated earlier, I think Hearthstone could lower their pricing just by leaving it out. It's a great thought. It just doesn't pan out.
I asked for the very same thing Ray ! That can has really been nice too. I used the ashes in spring when I planted grass in some dead spots in the yard which worked well until our 50000000 degree summer forced me to water them.
Pete
I just dropped in at the store where I bought my stove - the usual collection of wood burning stuff on display in the main isle. Including a ShopVac ash vacuum (stainless steel).
(broken link removed to http://www.shopvac.com/wet-dry-vacs/vac-details.aspx?vacId=374&vacSKU=404-11-00)
I didn't know they made such a thing. Not suggesting this would be the way to clean hot ash from a lit stove box, but what about vacuuming up the occasional hot ember around the live hearth? Anyone have any thoughts on this product?
edit - just now seeing the bold print "for cold ashes only" on their site. Do those of you who use a shop vac to clean up just use your regular vac, or a (stainless) steel model like the one above?
Not every ash emptying is perfect and dust free. Sometimes I'll go for too large a load on the shovel and a little bit will spill. Or sometimes I am in a bit too much of a hurry. It happens. And almost always there is a little cloud of dust that gets airborne as I gently dump it into the metal ash can, especially if it's empty. I now try to have the shop vac running with the nozzle near the can's edge to suck up that dust cloud.
This post needs a picture . . . on second thought . . . maybe it doesn't.
(broken image removed)
You do that in your shorts ? Man your crazy ! Wait a minute without shorts ! What is wrong with you ?
You need some 
The "ash cloud" is also why I prefer to remove ashes when there are coals left in the stove (stove still warm) as there will still be an established draft. As such, if I keep the mouth of the bucket I am moving ashes into right near the opening into the stove, the cloud gets sucked up the chimney.
pen
pen
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